"These poems and essays are random thoughts which came to mind at different times,” writes Meher Dinyar Dhondy, describing her book, Straight from the Heart, which was brought out by family and friends of the former teacher and writer to mark her 90th
birthday. Apart from 40 general poems, there are a few on national themes and others on festivals. The dozen or so essays cover a wide range of disparate subjects, including ghostly encounters, hobbies, friendship, travels and evils of dowry.
Dhondy, who taught English language and literature for 65 years from the age of 19, never imagined she would become a teacher. At first she taught in a school and subsequently gave private tuitions. In the Preface, the nonagenarian admits that while in school, she had to repeat a year. It was during that period that a new teacher came into her life. She "urged me to speak, to write, to draw, to paint. To be myself. And not to be worried about what others expected… She transformed me. She changed my life. I am glad I failed,” Dhondy acknowledges.
Born in Allahabad, she has lived most of her life in that North Indian city now renamed Prayagraj. This book is a collection culled from the poems and essays she had penned over a period of 60 years, when she was a regular freelance contributor to several magazines, including Parsiana. "Her dream book” was brought out in time to celebrate her milestone birthday, notes son Navroze in the Epilogue. Well-known in the advertising and marketing field, he has taken the photographs. Dhondy’s grandson Kurush designed the 115-page paperback priced at Rs 199 and published in 2019 by Zorba Books Private Limited.
SHERENE VAKIL